MODIFIED
Well-known specialist Tom Lenthall has dropped an XJR engine into a 1977 XJ6 Coupe resulting in a formidably fast restomod
LIKE A modern glass extension on the side of a 17th cottage, inserting a Fast and Furious style of car chase into The Sound of Music or finishing a Shakespearean sonnet with some extra lines about forgetting to put the bins out, adding something new to something old rarely works.
An exception to the rule is this remarkable XJ6 Coupe which has been retrofitted with the 4-litre supercharged AJ16 straight six from an X300-generation of XJR. Although coming from two different eras in Jaguar’s long history, the combination of massively enhanced performance and largely standard looks makes a near-perfect combination. The car is the work of renowned marque expert Tom Lenthall, who after developing several racing cars – including the bright orange XK8 we tested in the Summer 2018 issue of Jaguar World – is no stranger to modifying Jaguars.
Yet the inspiration for a supercharged XJ6 Coupe didn’t come from the track but from two other sources. The first was a similar car a customer brought to Tom in 2019 for his team of technicians to finish.
“Our job was to make the Brembo brakes work, wire up the engine management and do all of the plumbing, which is what we did, giving him back a running car. He just had to paint it and get it finished,” recalls Tom.
Not liking how the car was detailed, Tom reckoned he could build a better version before the owner finished this one. “It was almost like a challenge,” he tells me. “I turned to the boys in the workshop and said, ‘I reckon we can find a car, do the job and get it on the road before he finishes his.’”
Another reason behind the car was the XJ12 Coupe which Lenthall had developed for YouTube creator, Harry Metcalfe, and which is regularly seen on his popular channel, Harry’s Garage. With the 5.3-litre V12 now producing 350bhp, Tom wanted to develop a straightsix version with even more power.
“I said to Harry, ‘I’m going to build a XJ6 that will beat your car,’ and he said to me I’d never do that,” remembers Tom. “When I told him what I was doing he replied, ‘Ah, maybe you can…’”
From the outset Tom knew what he wanted, which was to use as many Jaguar parts as possible. Not only does he know them and the cars they come from inside out but much of what he would need was already on his shelf. “I understood by using mainly Jaguar parts I wasn’t in for a major fabricating job,” he explains. “It’s just nuts and bolts. I already had all of these ingredients; all I had to do was put them together and make it work.”
Tom tells me the most difficul
